Engineer mountain summit

Engineer mountains

Engineer is a fairly common name for mountains and peaks in Colorado. This hike is on the engineer mountain viewable from 550 between Durango and Silverton and shouldn't be confused with the Engineer moutain between Animas forks and lake city.

Easy to find and hike

Unlike many of the trails in this part of the state, this trail is very well traveled and very easy to follow. You'll find that trail maps don't usually show the trail to the summit. When you follow the trail from the parking area at the top of coal bank pass, you will reach a junction after about 2.5 miles. At that point, you can't miss the trail up engineer, even though it isn't marked on the maps. The trail is a little bit to the right and the obvious one heading up to the big rock.

Careful, now

You'll reach a point of the hike where the trail is entirely on grey talus. This is about 2.75 miles in and to some degree a pleasant change from the red sandy stuff that makes footing pretty tough. At this point there is a circle rock bench that someone created. This is a good place for a breather if you need it.

Continuing on, the trail will lead you into a crevice and seemingly disappear off the side of the mountain. Somewhat stupidly, I decided that swinging around and to the left, over severe exposure, and then climbing (note, climbing, not scrambling) up the cliffside was the appropriate approach and descent to and from the ridge above. Upon talking with other hikers,that is the most difficult and certainly scariest was to get up on the ridge. So....don't do that. Instead, shimmy up the crevice to the ridge above BEFORE the path through the crevice turns to the right and leads you to the open cliff. If you are unsure, wait for someone else to approach and follow them. Don't do what I did. The rock is too loose and it just isn't safe without equipment. I certainly would never take that approach again.

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